Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the recent Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk‘s Pro Skater 1 and 2 remasters, is now part of Blizzard Entertainment, reports GamesIndustry.biz. The studio has been merged with the developer behind World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo to provide ‘long-term support’, Blizzard said in a statement to GamesIndustry.
Blizzard has been working with Vicarious Visions for some time, a Blizzard representative said, but it is not clear which projects. Blizzard has a relatively large number of announced titles in development, including Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, en Diablo Immortal. None of the games announced the release dates.
We may soon learn more about Blizzard’s plans – and how it involves more than 200 Vicarious Visions employees. BlizzConline, an online version of the developer’s annual BlizzCon gaming convention, takes place on February 19-20.
Vicarious Visions was founded in 1990 and initially focused on titles for Game Boy and computer platforms. The company was acquired by Activision in 2005 and has developed games in the Guitar Hero, Transformers, Crash Bandicoot, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Skylanders franchises. Jennifer Oneal, studio manager for Vicarious Visions, has been promoted to executive vice president of development at Blizzard, and will report to Blizzard president J. Allen Brack.